Wall clock - WIP

[Sheffield Tony]

In this earlier thread I showed the turning saw I made when I got distracted from making a clock - so I thought I'd show you the clock, as it is so far. All the curved bits were sawn out using that saw, spokeshaves, gouges and scratch stock.

The hub is hollowed out at the back to take a standard quartz clock mechanism. I'm currently practicing carving the numerals - which I thought might be wisest done before glueing it up so that I can c**k up on just one bit at a time !

If it doesn't work out, I think I might reuse it as a flywheel for a treadle lathe ....

(Sorry about the fuzzy phone photo)

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Thought perhaps someone might be interested in how I got on. In the last picture, its is held together by a band clamp.
Time for a stressful glue-up.

One of the spokes is glued in already. I did this by positioning it over a full-sized drawing. Without it, the hub is want to rotate as pressure is applied on the band clamp - this one spoke prevents that. Then the remaining 17 joints are glued in one go - because of the way I designed it, it has to be drawn together in one go.

Then the carving of the numerals. Some of you gave me some advice (thank you !) on this in the Hand Tools section when I was struggling on my practice pieces. I went with the laser printed numerals onto sticky labels to mark the numbers out. I also decided I needed a fishtail chisel of sorts to do this, so I made one to match the size of the lettering (for scale, the whole thing is 400mm diameter, the numerals 18mm high).

I'm sure the idea is a subconcious copy of one someone on here showed before - it is a bit of scrap O1, mahogany handle and a small brass compression nut turned down to make the ferrule. A shallow grinding angle seemed to help getting a clean cut in the rather coarse grained oak, but I still did not find it easy, and a lot of patience and a new pair of reading glasses were required !

Finished with a wipe of Danish oil. A standard battery operated quartz mechanism is let into the hub. The hands are cut from thin sheet aluminium and spray painted black. The rounded ends of the hands are needed as a counterweight, I was concious that I was near the limit of hand size that the mechanism could drive. The design is carefully calculated to be balanced.

Done and on the wall:

I found this one tricky in a number of ways. Getting the bits to come together cleanly I found quite time consuming. The odd glue line is a tad more visible than I'd like, but I'm not ready to start on a MK2 just yet ! Makes me feel new respect for the pattern makers of days gone by.

 

[Roughcut]

Very impressive Tony, including the chisel making, hand carved numerals, clock hands and the final finished clock.
Really great work. =D>

 

[John15]

Hi Tony,
I like your clock very much. I'd like to try something like that when I'm a bit more proficient.
Cheers,
John

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Lovely work Tony. I would buy that at a craft fair.....I've always been fascinated by wood that has no "corners".

 

[MMUK]

That looks great =D> =D> =D>

But it's slightly out of plimb on the wall :wink:

 

[Sheffield Tony]

One of the problems with woodwork without straight lines and corners is that it never seems to look quite plumb ! The curves on the spokes seem to visually pull it round somehow. I've already adjusted it several times - it is hung on one keyhole slot behind 12 o'clock so is easy to tweak. It may well be my dodgy mobile phone photography that is on the skew though, I think.

I'm glad you like it, but I don't think I'll be selling these at craft fairs - too much work. I'll have to stick with dibbers, lemon squeezers and honey drizzlers for the time being...